Classic Poem

Bright days of sunny youth, irrevocable years
Period of manhood's prime
O'er thee I shed sad but unprofitable tears —
Lapse of returnless time:
Oh! I have cast away, like so much worthless dross,
Hours of most precious ore —
Blest hours I could have coined for heaven, your loss
For ever I'll deplore!

Contrite I kneel, O God inscrutable, to thee,
High heaven's immortal King!
Thou gavest me a soul that to thy bosom free
Might soar on seraph wing:
My mind with gifts and grace thy bounty had endowed
To cherish Thee alone —
Those gifts I have abused, this heart I have allowed
Its Maker to disown.

But from his wanderings reclaimed, with full, with throbbing heart
Thy truant has returned:
Oh! be the idol and the hour that led him to depart
From Thee, for ever mourned.

If I have dwelt remote, if I have loved the tents of guilt —
To thy fond arms restored,
Here let me die! On whom can my eternal hopes be built,
Save UPON T HEE , O L ORD !